1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to headgear for protecting the head from injury, and more particularly to headgear which will protect the eyes from injury in sports such as boxing.
2. Description of Related Art
The skull and skin of the human head provide a degree of protection from injury due to minor impacts, but the head is still vunerable to more severe impacts or concentrated applications of force in localized areas. The likelihood of sustaining injury dramatically increases in certain types of activities such as boxing. The use of boxing gloves tends to spread the force of blows from the closed fist, but prudence dictates that protective headgear be used when permitted. Previously disclosed protective headgear, and the headgear which is currently used in boxing, are deficient in the protection given for the eyes. An important reason for this deficiency is that the thumb of the boxing glove can penetrate the eye openings in such protective headgear. Another important reason is inadequate protection in the form of padding from even certain blows of the closed fist portion of the boxing gloves.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,122, Toms, entitled: "Boxing Headguard", discloses protective headgear of a type currently used in boxing. As illustrated in FIG. 8 of this patent, the eyes of the wearer are substantially unprotected.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,458,025, Portal, entitled: "Boxer's Headgear", also shows a structure affording little protection for the eyes of the wearer.
U.S. Pat. 4,058,854, Rhee, entitled: "Protective Helmet", shows various helmet embodiments. Those embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 1-5 are said to be suitable for boxing, and the like, and provide scant protection for the eyes.
U.S. Pat. 1,887,636, Hamby, entitled: "Boxing Mask", discloses a structure intended to protect the eyes and other head areas.
The foregoing patents fail to protect the eyes of boxers adequately from injury.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide protective headgear which will protect the eyes from direct contact with the padded thumb on a boxing glove.
It is a further object of this invention to provide protective headgear which will also protect the eyes from injury due to impact in critical areas adjacent to the eyes.
It is also an object of this invention to provide protective headgear which not only provides protection for the eyes, but also provides improved protection for other vunerable areas on the head.
It is a further object of this invention to provide improved protective headgear by a custom fit fabrication.
In accordance with these and other objects, which will become apparent hereafter, the instant invention will now be described with ,reference to the accompanying drawings.